Textile and paper base.



PATENTED SEPT. 18

T'No. 831,521.

v. A. DE PBRINI.

TEXTILE AND PAPER BASE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 16, 1906.

I 2 BHEETS-SHEET 1.

PATENTED SEPT. 18, 1906.

V. A. DE PERINI.

TEXTILE AND PAPER BASE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 16,1905.

2 SHEETS-SHEET '2.

rrnn sra'rns AIEN BEIGE.

VICTORIO ANTONIO DE PERINL OF RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL, ASSIGNOR TO CARL CHRISTIAN STOCKLE AND THOMAS MUIR KENTISH, OF RIO DE J ANEIRO, BRAZIL.

TEXTILE AND PAPER BASE,

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 18, 1906.

Application filed November 16. 1905 Serial No. 287.748-

hem and the so-called vegetable silk cannot e raised successfully commercially, and,

entirely unsuited indeed, might be said to be to the climate, soil, &c. Vood, although growing in great abundance, is dillicult of access on account of the slow and uncertain means of shipment and the exorbitant charges thereon, &c. For this reason fabrics and, in fact, all textile productions and such woods as pine are imported, as are also fin-' ished paper, except such of the latter as is used for, Wrapping purposes. (lapital is abundant forthe manufacture of textile fab-1 rics and paper from any suitable materials, and labor is at hand, but such suitable mate-,

rial is lacking. This condition is true not only of Brazil and South America, but also of.

a large number of other tropical sections, and may be said to be generally true'of the tro ics.

aving previously had a technical acquaintance with the textile industries, particularly as a chemist and botanist involving a careful study of the characteristics and manner of preparation of hemp and flax in Italy and elsewhere, and knowing of the scarcity, if not entire absence, of suitable material. to take the place of these substances intropical manufacture, I have for many years appreciated the value of any such substitute.

During a number of years residence in Brazil I have had occasion many times to search widely in the surrounding country from a botanical standpoint. On one of these trips three or four years ago discovered an isolated weed at an elevation of a thousand meters, which seemed to my trained eye to possess some of the characteristics of a textile plant, although it was in its wild condition totally unsuited to such uses by reason of its rank growth, to the thorns studding its bark, and other reasons which will appear. I was able to get a few of the seeds for experimentation and development. I was and have been unable to classify the plant closely or to get it classified even by noted authorities, consulted by reason of its original character, but decided that it belongs to the general class of iWIalvacea of the Pavonia class. have given the name Canhamo Braziliensis Perini to the plant. After I had obtained Brazilian Patent No. 4,099, April 20, 1904, I practically eliminated the thorns therein referred to and determined the details of the processes of bark removal, fiber separation, and other preparation and secured a fiber and wood valuable in the textile and wood paper arts, respectively.

lhe object'of my invention is to secure a fiber and wood having those properties essential to textile and paper uses.

A further object of my invention is to secure a longer and stronger fiber than that otherwise available for textile uses.

A further object of my invention is to obtain stock for a textile material capable of growth in practically all climates.

A further object of my invention is to secure a succession of crops per year of textile stock under practically all conditions.

A further object of my invention is to obtain a succession of crops of textile stock material without replanting.

A further object'of my invention is to sei cure a material for textile purposes whose characteristics vary widely with the age of the growth.

A further object of my invention isto secure a basic textile material having the char acteristics of silk, flax, and hemp, according to the age at which the growth is out.

A further object of my invention is to secure a material for paper-pulp having substantially the same properties as linen-pulp.

A further object of my invention is to secure a paper-pulp of superior natural whiteness.

In the drawings, flower of my plant. seed-capsule positions and Fig. 3 represents week s growth.

Figure 1 illustrates the .Fig. 2 illustrates the the seeds in separatepositions. a leaf of a plant having a and parts thereof in different Fig. 4 represents the normal leaf of a plant having a months growth; Fig. represents the normal leaf of the plant at maturity. r

As originally discovered by me and during uted upon the two sides as originally diswhich rise the stamen and pistil.

covered single leaves of a different character occur. The leaf s stifi, is almost identical with hemp,(0annabis satire) and of a darkgreen color. The flower forms at four months, is of mixed form, is dark carmine in color, has the shape of a bell, opens in the morning and closes at sundown, and is divided into five big petals, from the center of It is similar to the flax flower, (Limtm Zinnaeus.) The stalk is weak, having a bark of dark-green color, originally quite thorn but, as cultivated by me, so nearly freed rom thorns that they do not now interfere with the uality, regularity, strength, or length of the fi er-and are destroyed in the process of decortication along with other chlorophyllic substances.

The'stem is solid, the core within the bark being a wood of singularly white natural color even when dry, particularly desirable for paper-making by reason of this fact, the

unusual strength of paper secured, the tenac- .i'ty secured by the.unusual length of fiber,and

' other qualities possessed by linen paper. The

' nishes about fifty-five per cent. of pure cellumonths.

core isboth fibrous and molecular and furlose. The root is partly tuberous, partly woody, and wholly fibrous. form of a number of fine branches havin 'bulbs intermediate their lengths. It has su -fi'cient'hold within-the ground and hardiness to permit in its cultivated form the harvesting of successive crops from the same root, cutting the success1ve crops,

when the root is pulled up along with the plant, The natural limit to the successionof harvests appears to be ayear, as'determine'd bly'the inferiority of subsequent crops. The e aracter of the fiber in its cultivated form varies widely with the time at which the har-' vest is'gathered, the resemblance to silk being greatest at three months, the resemblance to flax greatest at four months, and the resemblance to hemp greatest at six At all times the fiber, by which I am now t'al arts of the bark, has some resemblance to a l of these three substances, the continued growth increasing the strength and coarseness'of the fiber, making it darker and more springy, but not entirely removing the silkiness and external gloss. The character of It exists in the except the last,

particularly referring to the elemen-' the fiber is also dependent upon the spacing of the indivldual coarsened by wide spacing and made finer by crowding or starving the plants. The thickness is normally one-fiftieth of a millimeter. The number of crops per year is dependent in some measure upon climatic conditions,

being preferably three in tropical sections- October or November intropical countries.

The core or central wooden portion, the roots,

and the leaves are waste in the manufacture of the textile fiber, which cheapens them relatively for paper purposes.

Comparing with other. substances the height of my plant is five, meters at six months age, while that olf European flax plants, the fiber being staple is 0.60 meter and that of jute 1.40

meters, mine yielding a correspondingly longer fiber and greater yield. Other textile plants re uire fixed seasons'andin general individua planting-per crop, great care in cultivation, in attention, irrigation, manuring, &c., and are unsuited to the southern hemisphere, whereas, as already pointed out, my cultivated plant knows almost no law and produces an enormous yield even under seemingly adverse conditions."

The careful selection, study, and develo 'ment of the plants beginning with its'wi d indigenous isolated'form and ending-with the complete useful fiber and byproduct, passing through the successive steps of botanical examination,ffiber-stud decortication, chemistry, and microsco y as changed the lant from a useless wee hidden in the tropical forests of the southern hemisphere, having a repulsive exterior, scantheight, and mere suggestion of future usefulness to the most learned and expert, into an attractive plant of evident commercial usefulness,hardy growth, large yield, easy cultivation, great strength and flexibility, and quite unusual fiber length.

The method of separation of the bark from the wood is as follows: When the crop has; been gathered, the plants are laid out 1n the sun until completely dry. Then begin a series of processes quite new and indispensable to this plant and whereby its special characteristics are scientifically and economicall made, use of, resultin in commercial pror ucts of great value. T 1e first process is called retting. The methods adopted in Italy, France, and Belgium with regard to flax are quite primitive. The flax or hemp is, left in covered tanks. of stagnant water dug in the grams per 7 solution sli htly salt and alkaline. 1n win ground until it is found that by putrid fermentation the fiber is easily loosened from the wood. This rudimentary method renders the localities unhealthy from the development of malaria. Others, again, leave the plants in open canals or deep ditches with running water twenty to sixty days, according to their thickness, until by peptic fermentation the fiber becomes loose. In this slow process, in which'the heat of the-sun cannot (owing to the current of water) assist the 'fermentation, the quality of the fiber suffers from the coloring-matters in the water (as iron, ocher, earth, oxids, nitrates, humus, &c.) and which, due to the delay, are deposited on the fiber for too long a time. Due to these basic substances the chemical bleaching has to be so forced as to greatlylessen the strength of the fiber. Finding, therefore, no scientific process in use adaptable to my fiber, I had to discover some new after much study and many experiments adopted the'following: The dried plants are tied in small bundles of equal size preparatory to entering the machinery. All the plants of each bundle should have been gathered at the same time and be of the same length and thickness. These are then placed in tanks (cement or wood) of a proportionate size and not more than one meter deep. They are then covered with clear water, to which is added chlorid of sodium, two thousand grams, carbonate of sodium, one thousand cubic meter in order to keep the ter the tau ks are left open. but in summer they are kept covered and protected from the sun as much as possible. In the tanks are iron pipes filled with steam from a neighbormg boiler. A thermometer in the center of each tank shows the temperature of the solution, which should be kept at an even degree. Experience shows that the time necess.. y to complete the process varies in proportion to the age of the plant and the temperature of the solution. Plants of one hundred days growth in a temperature of 21 centigrade will take seventy-two hours. For plants of one hundred and fifty days growth the temperature must be raised to 31 eentigrade, and the rotting will take one hundred and twenty hours,.while plants of one hundred and ninety days culture require 38 and one hundred and ninety-two hours immersion. fermentation takes place rapidly aided by steam and by the alkali-saline solution, which favors the disintegration of the peptcse and acts as a solvent. The fibers are loosened gradually from the top of the plant downward, preserving all their whiteness and great strength. This process has so many advanta es that it will probably be soon generally a opted. The expense in wood or coal to produce the steam is compensated by method, and

In this process the peptic the following advantages: First, by the general uniform temperature in the tanks, which is not obtainable with natural heat; second, by saving half the time; third, by determining a fixed exact time for the rotting in spite of atmospheric variations; fourth, because the rapidity of peptic fermentation in an alkali-saline solution does not allow of the diffusion of deleterious or infectious gases; fifth, because the fibers treated by this process acquire strength, clearness, and malleability, as proved by the very laudatory re orts my fiber has obtained in European mar 'ets.

The above process is scientific and simple, rapid, and economical. It is, moreover, new and solves a problem which has been much studied, but until now without result.

After the retting the bundles are taken from the tanks and washed in running water to clear them of the salts and the outer coating of chlorophyllic matter. They are then dried in the sun or by artificial heat, and afterward I proceed to the scut'ching process. Finding that the usual scutchers were unsuitable to the Uanha'mo Pm'tnt on account both of its great length and of'its flexibility, I modified the system, so that passing the bundles singly between cogged cylinders of which the pressure is gradually increased from the first ones to the last the wood is broken up and pressed out, falling to the ground and leaving the fiber almost free. A supplementary machine completes the scutching process by means of a ventilator which clears the fiber of any small bits of stalk which may still adhere. From these machines the fibers are taken to heaters, which consist of a number of round wooden bars fixed on, wheels to an axle driven by power at the rate of twelve hundred revolu: tions per minute. With these very rapid strokes the fibers are opened out and straightcned and are then ready for market.

liked-pulp procrsa-1 will now describe the process for using up the stalks of this extraordinmg," plant by converting them into cellulose and pulp for the manufacture of paper. It must be borne in mind that the wood of the plant has from contact with steam and the alkali-saline solution during the period of retting suffered a slight change. The alkali has penetrated its molecules, and so rendered it more apt for the subsequent treatment. As shown before, the stalks leave the scutchers in small pieces crushed and broken, and ready therefore to pass at once into the boilers, where it is sui. ient to subject them to a pressure of one and onehalf atmospheres115 centigrade of heat in an alkaline solution of caustic soda seven per cent., keeping them mechanically stirred during seven hours. Then after careful washing in hot water th y are taken to the P 4 l l l l l v the original plant.

advance in these respects before obtaining dryin is ready for market. If it is desired to ma e paper directly and to neutralize the yellow color left, it is transferred before drying to the bleaching-vat, Where a suitable bleaching agent is applied. The pulp after washing and having its neutrality tested by iodid of potassium is ready for the papermachine.

While I prefer the method of pulp treatment described, it will be evident that other methods of preparation may be used which may take advantage of the natural whiteness of the wood of the core and may eliminate the bleachin ste Such arts of t e disclosure herein as cannot be c aimed in this application are made for the purpose of completing the description of the invention or discovery herein claimed and will be covered by other patents.

When I refer to the developed Oanhamo Braztliensis Periml herein, I mean the plant as it has been cultivated and im roved' by me, resulting in the substantial elimination of the thorns, the lengthening of the fiber, and the attainment of a softness and a uniformity of thickness and quality in the fiber previously unknown and While I had made some not suggested by my Brazilian patent, I have not made disclosure therein of the matter set out herein, and, indeed, had not obtained the results which are here disclosed.

In referring to commercial fibers I Wish to be understood as specifying the fibers after they have been separated from the agglutinant and are ready for use or inuse in textile or allied arts whether these be there used in separate or recombined form.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. As an article of manufacture, commercial fiber obtained from the developedplant O'cmhamo Brazili ens'is Perin'i.

2. As an article of manufacture, commerc'ial fiber obtained from the bark of the developed plant Oanhaiirtb' Brazil'iensis Periml.

3. As an article of manufacture, reunited fibers'from the developed plant Uanhamo Brczil'iensts Per int.

4. Paper-pulp from the core of the developed O'qnhamo Brazil'ie'risis Pem'ml.

vicrdmo ANTONIO DE PERINI.

Witnesses:

JOHN KNIGHT. H. D. JAMESON. 

